Ventilating exhaust fans, such as those typically installed in bathrooms, draw air from within a space and pass the exhausted air out to another location, such as by passing the exhausted air through a vent in the gable or roof of a building. Exhaust fans can include a rotating fan wheel having a plurality of vanes that are rotated in a housing to draw an inward airflow from the space through a housing inlet and push an outward airflow through a housing outlet to the other location. Exhaust fans are typically mounted in an aperture of a wall or ceiling of the structure separating the space and the other location by mounting the housing to wall or ceiling joists or other structure in the wall or ceiling.
The location within the wall or ceiling and structure of exhaust fans makes exhaust fans attractive for the inclusion of other user functions that could benefit from the position of the exhaust fans with respect to the user and/or the convenient availability of a user-remote power source. However, most commercially available fans only have ventilation functionally or limited integrated lighting. Moreover, the mounting of the housing within the wall or ceiling aperture makes removing and replacing an installed ventilation fan to install additional functions or generally repair the fan difficult and time consuming. The removal and replacement of the exhaust fan can also require dis-connection and re-connection of the building power supply and installed ductwork for conveying air to and away from the exhaust fan further complicating the replacement process.